Ilium
by Zhong TianHui
Summary: I didn't want to be the face that launched a thousand ships. I didn't want to be the prophet that no one believed. I just wanted to go home… (Fair warning. Hints of torture.)


Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Warnings: Hints of torture (or small aspects of it). I don't think it's detailed but fair warning to those who would probably not enjoy it.

Notes: (Mostly for those who don't know but if you've read Iliad, then skip on.) Ilium is basically Troy- the counter part for the nameless village as a setting. The parallelisms of the place aren't always evident but it's meant to be that way. Helen of Sparta or Helen of Troy is the wife of Menelaus- kidnapped by Paris and placed in the walled city of Troy (or Egypt, depending on which version you're reading). Cassandra is the sister of Helen's kidnapper and also a woman who was loved by Apollo- cursed with the gift of prophecy but prophecies no one would believe. Hecuba is the mother of both Paris and Hector (the prince who was killed by Achilles).

I think that's about it. Enjoy.

x.X.x

"Ah!" Karura winced as her hair was pulled back and let out a cough, the water still in her nose and mouth. "Where is the key to the vaults?" The question was hissed in her ear but the room was too dark for her to see anything but the outline of her captor.

Still unable to talk. Still gasping for air. Still trying to breathe. And before she could answer, her head was dunked into the tub once more— body convulsing violently, trying to lift her head for air. The man pulled her up once more and threw her roughly to a nearby futon. Karura coughed out blood and water and other fluids she didn't know she had.

"Get the information out of her," she heard the man say to someone else. "Do anything as long as it doesn't leave a mark and it doesn't break anything."

She tried to push herself from the futon, taking in deep breaths. Choking. Coughing. Gasping. "W-wh-wait." She heard the man turn his heel and look at her— perhaps expecting an answer. Then he would not like what she would say next. "P-Pl-Please." The world was spinning and it was a struggle just to get the words out of her mouth. "L-Let me go. A-ah- I can't s-stay here. Th-they're com—"

Her words were interrupted by the sound of metal slamming unto metal. The main captor had closed the door. Karura lifted her eyes, trying to see who was the person left with her. Left to do anything to get information out of her. Half of her was worried about what the man would do; what other methods of torture he could employ. The other half was trying to call out to him— trying to tell him.

_Let me go. Let me go now and I won't tell anyone. If— if they find out what has happened. If all of them find out… your village or city or wherever this is— it will be burned to the ground. Please. Stop. Let me go back. I'll stop them. You'll live._

x.X.x

10. By her count, 10 people have died because of her. Because she was just another weak civilian who couldn't defend herself. Because this weak civilian also happened to be married to one of the most powerful and influential men in Kaze no Kuni. Because this weak civilian held the key, though one they couldn't find, to the vaults of Suna— vaults that contained everything from finances to battle plans to long term goals of allies and enemies.

Because she was an easy target and she was a gateway to the seats of power.

Karura had been coming back to Suna from her trip to Konoha when they came. She had with her three jounins from Suna and two chuunins sent by Konoha to help escort her. Two newly made chuunins— little more than children actually. 5 people who were with her when the people attacked them, bringing with them more than 20 skilled shinobi.

Over powered. Completely over powered. Killed.

Over powered. Restrained. Drugged. Kidnapped.

From what she heard, there were also 2 casualties from their side. Two more shinobi who could have lived a little longer if they weren't tasked to get her. Then, more recently, Karura heard that they were sending in messengers to Suna because she wasn't cooperating. She pleaded to them over and over again— _don't send in messengers. Send in a hawk or something else! Not people._

But who would believe her. No one did. And also, knowing her husband, those three messengers would never leave the office when he realizes what they've done— not alive at least.

A single tear trickled down her face. _Why did this have to happen?_ So far, the count was ten and it hasn't even been more than a day. Karura was sure that the numbers would increase…exponentially.

x.X.x

Day 2 and she's already lost count.

True enough, the messengers never came back. Her only clue to what was happening outside was the longer minutes in between each session with her captors. Sessions to get the information out of her and she's noticed that they quite liked using water. Drowned in it. Frozen in it. Forced to consume it.

Karura's never hated water quite this much.

Other methods were used of course. But water had been their favorite. But now, though still damp, she had a few moments to herself. With trembling legs, she tried to stand up and drag her numb body closer towards the window.

Karura looked out of her cell— a large tower overlooking the village. She could see tiny specks of people running around, laughter coloring their steps. Children were playing hopscotch on a nearby open space. The adults were getting ready to close their stores for the night.

_No. Get out. Leave now. Don't be here when they come._

She wanted to call out, to reach out. Tell everyone that this was no longer a safe place. Tell everyone that something is coming. But she had tried to reach out to people with no one believing her. No one believed her even if she's heard the guards talking about people being killed at the edge of the country they were in. Something moving towards the village.

_I didn't want to be the face that launched a thousand ships. I didn't want to be the prophet that no one believed. I just wanted to go home…_

Lifting her head up, Karura looked towards the horizon where an ominous haze of yellow and light brown slowly approached the village.

x.X.x

Chaos. Crying. Screaming.

Karura covered her ears, sinking to the cold stone floor of her little cell. She could hear children screaming for their mothers. She could hear the battle cries of the shinobi. She could hear the shouts of parents trying to protect their children. She could hear the quiet cries of those who were too scared to scream out loud.

_Stop. Please, stop._

She could hear the fires crackling at the distance, bodies falling on the ground, anguished and helpless cries. Or had it been her own that she was hearing— locked up in the cell, going mad imagining things that aren't true.

But reality and fantasy were clearly separated by a line drawn in gold— like the gold dust that crept into her room. She tried to push herself up and walk towards the glittering light on the dark floor. They'd probably leave this place faster if she got out of here faster.

Tried to move but she couldn't quite lift herself. Tried but was too tired to.

In time, the dust senses her presence and alerted its master to her location. The soft staccato of his footsteps echoing in the distance— slowly getting louder until she heard the hazy echo of a door being opened.

"Karura!" The words were soft yet shouted. Soft yet loud in her ears and there was a blinding light. Had she been in the dark for that long already? It was an effort to just look up at him— her body weighed down by ice cold water in her system.

She felt herself being carried— felt the warmth of his chest against her and like a flower that's been deprived of sunlight, she curled up closer towards his warmth. He had so many questions— what happened? What did they do to you?

Not that he needed answers to those questions. Not that it wasn't already clearly seen in the tired look in her eyes, in her broken smile, in the white patches that covered her skin. Probably just to see how lucid she was. And to his questions she only had one answer.

"…Home…"

He carried her out of the cell— pressed against him, damp against him, all too light in his arms. "When was the last time you ate?" he asked her, a strain evident in his voice. Karura doesn't answer— too distracted by the sounds of flames licking at houses and the sound of bodies falling in the distance.

The sound of people crying "Mother!" and she was too tired, and too hazy, and too dizzy to distinguish if those were coming from her children or from other people. She could only close her eyes and bask in the small warmth of the flames— drying up her cold skin. And she knew where that heat was coming from but she refused to look at the destruction littered the surroundings.

But she couldn't help it—- she took a peak.

Karura wondered what everyone was doing here. Why was the Kazekage here, holding her like a delicate porcelain doll in her arms? Why were her children here? Didn't they have missions to attend to. Why was her brother shouting out orders a few feet away? Why were there so many ANBU gathered in one place?

Why? Wasn't she just one person? Once civilian? Why did they_ all_ have to come here— harbingers of death and destruction come to pick up a fallen bird.

"Let go of me!" His voice was familiar—easy to recognize since he was still hissing out things in that same voice. "Is this him?" Her husband asked her, gently moving him so that Karura could meet her captor eye to eye. Now, she could see his face— heavily scarred yet determined against the face of death.

And here she was— unmarred yet tired; curling closer to the arms of death.

"Kill him." The order was swift and the execution was swifter still. She could almost hear the splatter of blood against the soil. "Take what you can from the place. Suna could use the resources and the village did not sign the Protective Treaty of the Five Villages. There are no consequences to these actions— none legally binding at least."

But she could feel them walking home— her husband saying something about going back to base or camp first. A few footfalls followed— footfalls of shifting sands, whispering winds, and the clicking of puppet joints. Another set of footsteps fall in time with them and an old voice commented, "Good call, Kazekage-sama. The council has been waiting for an opportunity to capture the mines near this area. We've killed two birds with one st…"

Karura no longer paid attention to the conversation, slowly turning her gaze back to the burning village. And she remembered this old story, the Iliad, of how a great army laid siege on a walled city— all for the return of one woman.

Who must have felt worse? Helen whose presence in that very city caused the death of thousands upon thousands of people? Or Cassandra who tried to warn them about their impending doom— but who was cursed never to be believed?

Karura thinks it's Hecuba— thinks it's the Queen of Troy as her eyes catch the silhouette of a mother holding the body of a dead child. The silhouette of a mother wailing in the distance— silent anguish written on her face. It's Hecuba— the mother who never asked for any of this, but who was forced, nonetheless, to watch the death and destruction of so many people. The mother who could not prevent her children from being killed one by one.

Helpless to it all.


End file.
